The Victorian Government has this week announced the make-up of the board of Infrastructure Victoria, an independent body which aims to take the politics out of infrastructure planning.
Infrastructure expert and Deputy Chair of Infrastructure Partnerships Australia Jim Miller has been appointed as the inaugural Chair of Infrastructure Victoria.
Mr. Miller is former Executive Director at Macquarie Capital and has extensive experience in the infrastructure sector, having worked in the areas of regulated assets, transport, energy, utilities and resources and social infrastructure.
Maria Wilton, Manager Director of Franklin Templeton Investments Australia and director of the Financial Services Council of Australia and the National Breast Cancer Foundation joins the board as its Deputy Chair.
President and Vice Chancellor of Monash University, Professor Margaret Gardner, and former CEO of Westpac New Zealand and Bank of Melbourne, Ann Sherry, will also join Infrastructure Victoria as members of the board.
The Board will also include the Secretaries of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, the Department of Treasury and Finance and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
These statutory members will ensure Infrastructure Victoria is able to coordinate infrastructure planning with the public service and its agencies.
The new independent body will ensure that Victoria’s immediate and long-term infrastructure needs are identified and prioritised based on objective, transparent analysis and evidence.
Infrastructure Victoria will be required to publicly release a 30-year Infrastructure Strategy detailing short, medium and long-term needs and priorities. The Government will be required to develop a five-year Infrastructure Plan outlining its priority projects and funding commitments, and Infrastructure Victoria will assess the Government’s progress against this plan.
The expert body will also independently assess the economic, environmental and social merits of major projects, and publish research on a range of infrastructure issues.